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Sexual Harassment Suit against Isiah Thomas

Originally Posted by NY Daily News

Knicks President and basketball legend Isiah Thomas was at the center of a bombshell lawsuit last night after a senior female employee alleged she had been the target of harassment.
Anucha Browne Sanders, the team's former high-profile senior vice president of marketing, filed papers against the hoops great in Manhattan Federal Court yesterday - claiming Thomas called her a "b----" and asked her to have sex.

She said when she refused his advances, the 44-year-old married father replied: "What? I can't get any love today?"

Thomas' legal team immediately branded Browne Sanders an opportunist - charging her complaints followed a failed attempt to extort $6 million. And the lawyers charged she was using Hall of Famer Thomas' standing to aid her case.

"This lawsuit is a blatant attempt by Anucha Browne Sanders to get a large sum of money from Madison Square Garden by taking advantage of the celebrity status of our client," said Thomas' attorneys Peter Parcher and Sue Ellen Eisenberg.

"While still employed, she demanded from the Garden, as a condition of her departure, a payment of $6 million, which is more than 20 years of her salary."

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Originally Posted by New York Times

A former high-level Knicks executive filed a lawsuit yesterday accusing Isiah Thomas, the team's president, of sexual harassment and discrimination, saying he had made unwanted advances, cursed her and barred players from working with her on community events.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, the executive, Anucha Browne Sanders, said that Thomas refused to stop his actions despite her protests and discomfort, and that her immediate supervisor, Steve Mills, the president of Madison Square Garden Sports, did nothing to intercede on her behalf.

Last Thursday, Browne Sanders was fired as the team's senior vice president for marketing and business operations after an in-house investigation by the Garden found her complaint to be "unsupported."

Browne Sanders, 43, said in a telephone interview yesterday that she had found her dream job with the Knicks, whom she joined in 2000. Now, she said: "I'm outraged at the termination. I feel they've destroyed a stellar sports career."

She named Thomas and the Garden as defendants in the lawsuit, which charges them with two counts of sex discrimination and two counts of retaliation. She is seeking reinstatement and unspecified damages.

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Marvelleous.. this is exactly what the Knicks needed..

FYI: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] | [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] | [Only registered and activated users can see links. ][Only registered and activated users can see links. ][Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Actually this is great news!

This is the best news possible for the future of this team! If this stuff plays out to be true in any way, shape, or form, it could hopefully lead Dolan to fire Isiah! The guy was so eager to run a guy like Sprewell out of town that something like this should drive him nuts. Yeah sure in the short term the organization looks bad, but hey, the organization can't look any worse since they're paying a league high for a team with such a bad record.

I for one hope this lady's claim is found to be true and that Isiah gets fired as a result. Ideally Dolan would be forced to sell too and we'd get a real owner with some sense, but that's of course not going to happen for quite some time.

Re: Actually this is great news!

Originally Posted by RMK-NYK

This is the best news possible for the future of this team! If this stuff plays out to be true in any way, shape, or form, it could hopefully lead Dolan to fire Isiah! The guy was so eager to run a guy like Sprewell out of town that something like this should drive him nuts. Yeah sure in the short term the organization looks bad, but hey, the organization can't look any worse since they're paying a league high for a team with such a bad record.

I for one hope this lady's claim is found to be true and that Isiah gets fired as a result. Ideally Dolan would be forced to sell too and we'd get a real owner with some sense, but that's of course not going to happen for quite some time.

u must be qrazy to want isiah fired...did u see the knick team that isiah was given and the team he put it into...knicks just need to get some chemsitry and get used to playing wit each other...i believe the knicks are one player away to be an elite team...they need that toughness on D(maybe ron artest) but firing isiah is not the solution

No this is horrible news. Im pretty sure Thomas didn't do or say anything worse than some the comments we all have said to female co-workers jokingly. Sexual Harrasment is very dangerous weapon woman hold in out P.C. culture... The worst thing about this news, is that this is the most important month for a basketball GM. Zeke is too occupied to worry about the Knicks, or if his ego is really that big, he might go psych and make a kamikazee style trade just to prove that is not worried about this lawsuit. Its offical folks, in my 22 years of life, this has been THE WORST KNICK SEASON EVER. PERIOD

relax. who cares. shes just trying to extort money, simple as that. yea thats what we need a new GM? not. its to stick with this one atleast until after deadline. you cant make a change one month left.

btw can you please think of another demeaning nickname? ive heard that so much "towel head". we know he wears a towel on his head when we lose. we get it. we all GET IT. lets be creative and think of something else. please.

Re: Actually this is great news!

Originally Posted by datruth

Originally Posted by RMK-NYK

This is the best news possible for the future of this team! If this stuff plays out to be true in any way, shape, or form, it could hopefully lead Dolan to fire Isiah! The guy was so eager to run a guy like Sprewell out of town that something like this should drive him nuts. Yeah sure in the short term the organization looks bad, but hey, the organization can't look any worse since they're paying a league high for a team with such a bad record.

I for one hope this lady's claim is found to be true and that Isiah gets fired as a result. Ideally Dolan would be forced to sell too and we'd get a real owner with some sense, but that's of course not going to happen for quite some time.

u must be qrazy to want isiah fired...did u see the knick team that isiah was given and the team he put it into...knicks just need to get some chemsitry and get used to playing wit each other...i believe the knicks are one player away to be an elite team...they need that toughness on D(maybe ron artest) but firing isiah is not the solution

I'm crazy to want Isiah fired??? Are you seriously out of your mind? Isiah is honest to god the worst GM in the history of NBA, if not all sports! Since the beginning this guy has had no clue and he actually has this team in a worse situation than when he got here.

Lets see...so in his first few months after being hired, he made the huge trade for Marbury...one that I liked, and initially I was happy. Then the team started on a nice win streak...were playing on a roll...Marbury and Van Horn were running the pick-n-roll to great results and things were going well....what happens? Isiah trades Van Horn off for Tim Thomas and Nazr Mohammed and sited a need to "get younger and more athletic." The team went into a rut not surprisingly. Lets also not forget the pathetic way he fired Don Chaney and had to scramble to bring in Lenny Wilkens...a coach who the game had passed years ago. The season ended with the team limping into the playoffs and being embarassed by the Nets. In that season alone there were a number of questionable moves, but the team made the playoffs and things were looking up.

So from there Isiah decided to make things worse. Then there was the horrendous signing of Vin Baker last off season. Then season starts...Nazr Mohammed finally found some ability and was playing well, and Isiah even sited as much. What happened? Suddenly at the deadline Isiah decides to trade Mohammed and Baker away... (What happened to younger and more athletic??) and added the great Maurice Taylor and Malik Rose and unbelievably enough the man actually ADDED TO PAYROLL in doing so. I mean if you're going to add money, you'd think it'd be for good talent...to do it with these two...ugh.

And I still haven't even mentioned Jerome James, and the horrendous make up of this roster. Granted I think this roster is better than 13 wins, but you can't tell me that when a GM puts together a roster with no SF and no true PG, (combined with all the dumb moves he's made in the past)...that this guy deserves to stay in his job. Lets also not forget that we basically have no significant draft picks for the next few yrs, and we're still capped out.

And ok Isiah supporters will bring up the fact that he's drafted well...yes he has, so lets make him head of scouting. I for one, want a GM here that has a definite plan and knows what he is doing. Isiah took a bad situation and made it worse and I want him gone before he digs the hole even deeper.

the team thomas inherited was bad... the team he has put togther is bad... i don't think it makes a difference whther he stays or goes...

it starts with 'starbury'.. we will never be an 'elite' team with 'towelhead' on the roster...never...no-how.. and with a 76m contract... he's not going anywhere...

Isiah had a mediocre to bad team when he got here, and he actually made the team worse. And ok, so now we're younger and have guys to build around. Still this team is capped out, and has barely any first round picks for next few yrs...not exactly promising. And now this talk about getting Jalen Rose?? How exactly does he fit into any of this? He's a bad attitude...overpaid...and he's old. At least if we keep Penny we're getting money back at the end of the year when he's off payroll and we can use that money on FA's. Isiah is only going to keep digging this hole deeper...he needs to go.

A new GM (and preferably one with a clue) could at least give a new outlook and would be a fresh start.

on paper the knicks are a nasty team...isiah is probably the best man to draft a player....the only trade i dont like that isiah has done is the mohammed trade but we got david lee out of that...let the knicks get a chemistry together...i also didnt like the signing of lenny wilkens, i believed that fratello was the way to go...vin baker was actually a desperate move cuz the knicks needed a big man just like the signing of jerome james

on paper the knicks are a nasty team...isiah is probably the best man to draft a player....the only trade i dont like that isiah has done is the mohammed trade but we got david lee out of that...let the knicks get a chemistry together...i also didnt like the signing of lenny wilkens, i believed that fratello was the way to go...vin baker was actually a desperate move cuz the knicks needed a big man just like the signing of jerome james

If I remember, around the time Baker was signed there was talk that Erick Dampier badly wanted to come to the Knicks and he was willing to take the exception that Isiah stupidly gave to Vin Baker. It wasn't s desperation signing...it was a dumb signing.

As far as Jerome James...another dumb signing for obvious reasons. I hate to think that this guy would have been our starting center had Curry not been brought here. Actually....the way things have gone with him, it's possible that he still might not have been playing.

The Rose and Taylor trades last year were also both stupid trades. Ok so Taylor did have a good game tonite and of late has been playing well...but when you add payroll to a team already over the cap the additions are Malik Rose and Maurice Taylor....that's just awful. This guy should not be a GM.

I don't necessarily want to wish ill on Isiah, but regardless of how this lawsuit turns out, I just hope it ends with Knicks looking for a new (and hopefully competent) GM.

Anybody here his statement yesterday? I missed it. For some reason, is it seems as if not too many people are backing him. On ESPN, the PTI guys are calling for his removal. I didn't think it would get to that point. I wonder who is in line for a possible new GM, maybe Larry Brown?????

Whether or not this goes away quickly for Isiah is almost pointless, because of the team's record, his past executive jobs, and the fact that now the Ny media wants to make an example out of him for not winning, these new allegations have already made a stain on his resume. If there are any good GM candidates available, Thomas is out unless the team makes a miraculous run and push for the playoffs. They don't have to make th playoffs, but if they at least play well over 500 ball from here on out, it would give people more hope for the future and back him to keep his job. They need a SF or a good shooting guard, preferably that can defend or shoot from the outside. A Jalen Rose deal would not make any sense unless we got Mike James. Atlanta would not give up Harrington unless they got Frye, I would offer Lee and Richardson(it makes no sense to give Atlanta expiring contracts cause Harrington is in the last year of his deal)...Maybe we can talk Artest into forcing a trade out of Sacramento, get a hold of Ray Allen's agent, I heard KG still might want out, WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING!

This has got to be worst week Thomas has ever endured. His golden boy image has been hacked to shreds in a matter of days. Now its been revealed that he's a bad father!! Even worse, these kind of cases take forever to finish But atleast everyone has forgotten about his disgraceful job as the Knicks president of operations for a few days.